“Junk food is the gateway drug,” a sociology professor explained at a session on marketing to children. She then acknowledged that there was no research to back up her claim. Another speaker, Harvard University professor Jon Hanson, described a fundamental biological reaction that kicks in when people perceive a threat to their freedom. The crowd didn’t need much convincing that this negative reaction to attacks on human liberty was actually a bad thing. Another attorney called food cop policies “the rational approach,” and called the pro-freedom approach “free to be a barbarian.”

When it was suggested that taking soda out of schools would lead to the “forbidden fruit” problem — our natural inclination to want what we are prevented from having — one participant recommended a “hear no snack foods and soda, see no snack foods and soda” approach. Just don’t allow kids to get anywhere them — ever. Then they won’t know what they’re missing. Meanwhile, Jon “freedom is a ruse” Hanson of Harvard responded to the issue of soda in schools by saying:

This is just one more time when we don’t know what we’re doing … it’s a really complex problem, I don’t think any of it will be solved until we get to the foundation of who we really are.